Murdaugh’s lawyer attacks attorney general for death penalty statements

Alex Murdaugh’s attorney Dick Harpootlian said Monday that S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson’s recent widely reported statements that he could seek the death penalty against Murdaugh were not only wrong and uninformed, they were made to help Wilson in his political campaign for governor.

Under state law, Wilson cannot seek the death penalty against Murdaugh in any retrial because Wilson only sought life sentences in the original 2023 trial, Harpootlian said.

Late Monday afternoon, Wilson fired back, saying seeking the death penalty in a new trial is perfectly lawful. He denied he was trying to score political points with voters.

“This case is being treated exactly as it should be, as a brand-new trial,” said Wilson in a statement released by his office. “Every legal option is on the table, and those discussions are happening as they should happen, with the dedicated prosecutors and staff within the Attorney General’s Office, not as part of some campaign apparatus.”

Wilson’s statement continued: “In 2022, the legal and practical realities surrounding the death penalty were very different. South Carolina had not carried out an execution in more than a decade. That has changed, and it is one of several factors that must now be considered as we move forward.”

In Murdaugh’s original 2023 six-week trial on two state charges of murder — for killing his wife, Maggie, and his son Paul — he was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences in prison. Those sentences were vacated last week when a unanimous S.C. Supreme Court ruled that Hill’s jury tampering had denied Murdaugh his right to a fair trial. A do-over trial is in the works, but no date has been set.

“Over the weekend we learned that the attorney general has announced he is considering the death penalty in this case,” said Harpootlian in a well-attended press conference outside his downtown Columbia law offices Monday afternoon.

“Clearly he (the attorney general) is not talking to lawyers in his office,” said Harpootlian, likely referring to either Don Zelenka or Creighton Waters, two veteran criminal attorneys who work for Wilson and who were instrumental in getting Murdaugh two life sentences for the 2021 murders of his, wife, Maggie and son Paul.

“He is probably talking to his political consultants who thought that was a good sound bite for his governor’s campaign,” said Harpootlian. “Please, Alan, focus on your job and not the politics.”

Currently, Wilson is running for governor in a close contested six-person race. Already at least one opponent has criticized him for being responsible for the Supreme Court’s last week’s decision vacating Murdaugh’s murder convictions.

“The law is clear he cannot seek the death penalty,” Harpootlian said.

Under S.C. law, prosecutors can seek the death penalty when a case involves two or more murders. But Wilson declined to seek the death penalty against Murdaugh.

In the Murdaugh case, the bodies of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found on the family’s 1,700-acre estate, called Moselle, on the evening of June 7, 2021. Maggie had been shot with an assault rifle; Paul, with a shotgun. Under the state’s theory of the case, Murdaugh used both weapons to kill Maggie and Paul in an effort to shut down emerging questions in his law firm and elsewhere about missing client money.

“Here’s a question — what does he (Wilson) know today that he didn’t know five years ago?” asked Harpootlian. “Why is he saying he’s going to seek the death penalty? Is there some new piece of evidence?”

Lawyers discuss other Murdaugh topics

In answers Monday to reporters’ questions on Murdaugh-related topics, Harpootlian and Murdaugh defense attorneys Jim Griffin and Phil Barber spoke on a variety of topics:

• Getting subpoena powers to request evidence for the upcoming retrial of Murdaugh. “We will have the power to investigate,” Harpootlian said.
• Finding impartial jurors will be difficult but not impossible, Harpootlian said. In his 1980s murder trial of Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins, “We had to go through 400 jurors to get 14.” Defense attorneys hope to question individual jurors. “The state should want an unsullied, uninfluenced jury as much as we do,” Harpootlian said.
• Murdaugh told his attorneys it was difficult to believe he had gotten his murder convictions overturned because “he has lost every significant legal ruling along the way,” said Griffin. “He was very grateful ... he got somewhat emotional. He has always said he deserves to be in jail for the (financial) crimes he committed” but not killing his wife and son. (Murdaugh is currently serving 27 and 40 year prison terms, in state and federal prisons respectively, for embezzling some $10 million from clients and his law firm.)
• Murdaugh, who desperately wants a new trial, told Griffin, “What I was convicted of was so reprehensible, was something that is so heinous and that to be wrongfully convicted of that is almost unbearable.” Griffin added that Murdaugh “is very thankful he is no longer the convicted murderer of his wife and son. He is appreciative to the court for applying the rule of law.”
• Any retrial will take place “within a year” but not this year, Harpootlian predicted. One reason for the lengthy time to trial is that defense attorneys have to go through the 8,000-page transcript of the 2023 trial, which took six weeks and had more than 70 witnesses, Harpootlian said. “That takes time.” Also, the defense will have hire new experts, who will have to study evidence and render an opinion, Harpootlian said.
• No decision has been made on whether the defense will seek a change of venue (a new county) in which to retry the case. The defense is studying that issue, Griffin said. “It would have to be in a county that has very similar demographics as Colleton County ... that will be looked at very closely for sure.”
• Asked what he thought any new defense investigation could yield, Griffin said, “The truth.”
• Griffin raised the possibility that more people than Hill could have tampered with the jury. “Was she a lone wolf? Was she doing it just for the ‘siren of celebrity’?”
• The possibility of a plea deal. “He will never enter into a plea which requires some admission he did something he didn’t do,” Griffin said. Harpootlian said, “We want a trial.”
• Evidence at the State Law Enforcement Division may prove useful to the defense, defense attorneys said. Moreover, SLED investigators also mishandled key evidence — points defense attorneys will be sure to focus on, they said. “They have a lot of explaining to do,” Harpootlian said.
• Harpootlian declined to answer whether he believed Murdaugh may be acquitted of murder in any new trial. “You don’t predict football, basketball or trials.”

Griffin said Murdaugh never stood a chance, once Hill had tampered with the jury.

“The jury was programmed not to believe him,” Griffin said.

If a trial cannot be held this year, Wilson will be out of office as attorney general by early January, whether he wins his governor’s race or not.

It will likely be up to a new attorney general to go forward with the Murdaugh case, including making a decision on whether to seek the death penalty.

The three Republicans running for attorney general are state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, 1st Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, and 8th Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Stumbo. The winner of the June 9 GOP primary is the likely next attorney general.

On Monday, Wilson likened Harpootlian’s attack on him to a stunt.

“What is disappointing is watching Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin spend their time trashing SLED and attacking South Carolina law enforcement instead of treating this matter with the seriousness it deserves,” Wilson’s statement said.

“At the end of the day, our responsibility is simple: follow the law, protect the integrity of the process, and ensure justice is pursued fairly and professionally,” Wilson said.

Harpootlian, asked for comment about Wilson’s statement, said, “I’ve prosecuted over a dozen death penalty cases, and, unlike him, I have actually put somebody in the electric chair. He’s got a primary race three weeks from now. He’s trying to convince voters he’s somehow a tough guy.”

As for trashing law enforcement, “If they didn’t do their job, then we have the right to comment,” Harpootlian said. “The truth is this is a case Wilson spent millions of dollars on, and six weeks trying, and it has to be redone.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 5:15 AM with the headline "Murdaugh’s lawyer attacks attorney general for death penalty statements."